


Atrast Vala

by thewightknight



Series: Reconcilable Differences [10]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, F/M, Lies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 21:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15324270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: Zaryn confronts Blackwall in the dungeons at Val Royeaux.





	Atrast Vala

Of all the upheavals she’d suffered in the past months, this one hit the hardest.

He didn’t look up at her approach. In fact, he shrank further in on himself. She didn’t ever remember seeing him look so small. Looking at him only increased the pain that had begun to stab at her heart from the moment she’d heard his confession.

Standing outside his cell, she waited for him to acknowledge her presence, but he didn’t speak, didn’t look up. Finally, she lost patience.

“You know, this whole time I’ve been afraid I was gonna fuck this up. I mean, here you were, this great and noble man. A Grey Warden. Fightin’ the good fight and all and what was I? Just a Duster. A crook. A dirty killer. Nobody worth a damn. Eventually you’d figger it out, everyone would, and then where’d I be, ‘cause ta have what I’ve had and then lose it’d be worse than never havin’ it at all.” She laughed, a sharp outburst with no real humor in it. “And all along you were worse than me. At least when I did my killin’ I was honest ‘bout it.”

She strode forward, grasping the bars, as he sat too far away for her to reach him.

“Was it all a lie, then? You said the pretty words, charmed yer way inna my bed so’s you could betray me too? Run off with whatever you learned ‘bout the Inquisition and sell it to the highest bidder?”

“No!” She’d finally gotten a reaction out of him. Blackwall rose from the rough bench, almost staggering to the bars. “Don’t you ever believe that.” He wrapped his hands around hers where they gripped the bars, and now she could see the tears glistening in his eyes. “I’d never do that to you.”

“Wouldn’t ya? How can I believe anything you say? I don’t even know who you are.”

His grip tightened, almost to the point of pain over hers, and then he let go, hands dropping to his sides.

“I’m a man who made a mistake.” He stepped away again, falling back onto the cot, which groaned underneath him, or was that his exhalation of despair? Or hers? “There’s no excusing what I did. I tried to make up for it when I realized people were still dying because of me. Didn’t think you’d come after me.”

“What, you were gonna go off and leave me with no explanation? Not even a note? ‘Sorry, Zaryn. I’m a lyin’ bastard what murdered women and children. You’ll be better off wi’out me’? Just leave it for me to find out months later, if I ever found out at all?”

Blackwall didn’t answer. Didn’t look at her either. She waited for him to say something. Anything. The silence stretched on between them until at least she turned and stomped out.

Cullen avoided her eyes too as he handed her Leliana’s report. When he told her not to blame herself she tried to laughed but it came out sounding more like a sob.

“What do we do now?” he asked.

 _Let him rot,_ she thought. And then, _let him hang._ That’s not what she said, though.

“Have Rainier released to us.”

What would happen after that, she didn’t know. She didn’t want to see him again, not like this, but she couldn’t bear to see him as he was now, caged and lost.

“Stone take him, and give me my sense back in trade.”

 _Rainier_. _Thom Rainier._ Was there any part of the man to whom she’d given her heart that wasn’t a lie?

**Author's Note:**

> [Crossposted from thewightknightwrites.](https://thewightknightwrites.tumblr.com/post/175978065230/atrast-vala)
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you want to say hi, [check out my profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/profile) for where I’m currently hanging out on this here internet thing.


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